Brock Lesnar Is "Miraculously" Healed, Will Return This Summer

In a bit of promotional genius, the UFC's president Dana White and their current heavyweight champion, Brock Lesnar (4-1) appeared live this morning on ESPN's Sportscenter to discuss Lesnar's current condition after suffering for months with an acute intestinal infection known as diverticulitis.

Both men reported that Lesnar's recovery was nothing short of a medical miracle that has baffled his doctors who can now find no lingering traces of the condition they once thought might end Lesnar's competitive career. Lesnar at least partially attributed his rapid recovery to holistic and mental treatments.

Whatever the cause of his recovery was, UFC fans the world over are surely relieved to have Lesnar back in the fold. Regardless of what one might think of his antics, there is no denying that Brock Lesnar is currently the most marketable fighter in the world. His next opponent will be the winner of Frank Mir (13-4) vs. Shane Carwin (11-0) who meet in a five-round interim title match at UFC 111: St. Pierre vs. Hardy on March 27th in Newark, NJ.

A likely venue for Lesnar's return was said to be at the UFC's promotional debut in Boston, MA on August 28th, 2010.

Video courtesy of espn.com:

Brock Lesnar's Ilness Finally Revealed, Carwin's Injury Not That Bad After All

It was revealed today that Brock Lesnar (4-1) is suffering from a serious bacterial infection of his intestinal tract. He's also suffering from mononucleosis, as was announced earlier. There's no word on whether the two conditions are connected or if it's just a terrible coincidence.

This revelation ends weeks of speculation in the MMA community, but questions still linger. It's not known how serious Lesnar's condition is or what the prognosis is for recovery. It's similarly unclear when, if ever, Lesnar can be expected to defend his heavyweight title.

The future of Lesnar's intended next opponent, Shane Carwin (11-0) is also up in the air. It was announced today that Carwin's leg injury is not as serious as once thought and won't require surgery. He'll be ready to compete in early 2010.

My best guess is that, with "Minotauro" Nogueira (32-5-1) sidelined by his own serious illness, Shane Carwin will probably face Cain Velasquez (7-0) early next year to determine a new interim champion. The winner could face whichever of Nogueira or Lesnar is healthy first.

UFC's Injury Woes Continue; Nogueira: Super Staph, Carwin: Ankle Surgery, Lesnar: Deathly Ill

The UFC already looked desperate when they scheduled Cain Velasquez vs. Antonio Nogueira to headline UFC 108 (Jan. 2nd, 2010), which is this year's version of their traditionally-massive New Year's show, but that marginally-marketable match has now been called off because "Big Nog" has succumbed to advanced staph infection.

According to UFC president, Dana White:"[Nogueira] got staph infection, bad, to the point now it's in his bloodstream, and he's probably going to have to be hospitalized and intravenously given antibiotics." Yeah, that sounds pretty bad to me. Savy MMA fans will remember that staph infection was blamed for Nogueira's poor performance against Frank Mir at 2008's New Year's show. Maybe "Big Nog" should consider having the mats at his training facility cleaned once in a while. Geez Louise.

The logical match-up for the now-opponentless Velasquez is Shane Carwin, but Carwin has also recently announced that he's unfit to compete after undergoing ankle surgery. It would have made sense since Carwin vs. Velasquez were originally scheduled to fight at UFC 104 before Carwin was offered a title shot at Brock Lesnar's heavyweight belt at UFC 106. Of course, that fight was canceled when Lesnar began suffering from a mystery illness that may be H1N1 or could be mono. Now seems like it could be both at once, or maybe the Ebola virus. It's tough to say.

According to White:

"I'm actually probably going to fly to go see him, and we're going to probably have to do some stuff to take care of this guy. The reality is they don't really know all that's wrong with him. He owns a bunch of property in Canada. He went up to Canada just to get away from his house, to go up there and just kind of chill out up there...He [expletive] dropped. He went down, and he had to go to the hospital. They ran every test on the planet on him, and they ended up finding out something else was wrong with him. I am worried about it. If it's a long wait, we're gong to have to do something. We're going to have to – the last thing I ever want to do is strip a guy who won a title. That's the last thing I want to do. I don't know if we'll have to do an interim or what we'll do to fix it. He is very, very sick, and he's going to be out for a while."

Okay, so apparently Brock Lesnar might be dying. I bet all those haters who accused him of ducking Carwin feel pretty sorry about now. The UFC has constantly impressed industry observers with their ability to salvage cards, but after this streak of bad luck it will be interesting to see what they put together for UFC 108. I think it's about time to give Anderson Silva another call to see if he can't headline against Vitor Belfort, after all. Maybe they can get Randy Couture on the card somehow? Do I hear Couture vs. Liddell IV? Could either Couture or Liddell be talked into facing Rich Franklin? Maybe Matt Hughes' rumoured match with Renzo Gracie can be bumped up from UFC 109? I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Props to MMA Junkie, Yahoo Sports and Top MMA News for the assists.

Illness Sidelines Brock Lesnar, Swine Flu Likely

According to Yahoo Sports, Brock Lesnar (4-1) has notified the UFC that he will be unable to compete as scheduled in the main event of UFC 106 (Nov. 21st). He has been suffering over the past several weeks with an unnamed illness that has prevented him from training as hard and as often as normal.

UFC president, Dana White had this to say about the situation:

“He said he’s never been this sick in his life. He said it’s been going on for a long time and he just hasn’t been able to shake it.”

Apparently, Lesnar has been coping with this illness for so long now that he has passed the point at which tests can still be done to determine its exact cause. However, many are assuming that the UFC's heavyweight champ was stricken with the H1N1 virus. According to his twitter page, Shane Carwin (11-0), Lesnar's intended opponent, can relate:

"Looks like it is postponed till Jan 2. I had h1n1 myself and I understand how devastating it can be."

So it appears that UFC 106 just went from being one of the biggest cards of the year to being just an average event with a rather underwhelming main event of Tito Ortiz (15-6-1) vs. Forrest Griffin (16-6) II. Then again, if I know the UFC as well as I think I do, it's a pretty safe bet that they'll attempt to spice the card up somehow to compensate for the lost title fight.